Okay so... For no reason, since yesterday I've been having random CPU spikes. It'll be at a regular load like 20-30% and then it spikes to 70ish% and my entire PC lags severely for a few seconds. It happens randomly, usually every couple minutes. It's literally killing me. It's never done this before in my life, since yesterday.

I've done what everyone says like finding the process that spikes up, but nothing has worked. I even reinstalled Windows 7 just now, still no luck. After reinstalling Windows 7 - I think it's a hardware issue...

Okay so I was playing RIFT and using a java program on the side.. First I started monitoring the spiking and the java program was spiking - so I closed that. Okay no more spiking, then I ran a virus scan - guess what started spiking? The virus scanner was spiking, so I closed that. I had nothing else running except RIFT and then that started spiking. It was spiking like every second program until there wasn't any other program to spike.

Okay so I was playing RIFT and using a java program on the side.. First I started monitoring the spiking and the java program was spiking - so I closed that. Okay no more spiking, then I ran a virus scan - guess what started spiking? The virus scanner was spiking, so I closed that. I had nothing else running except RIFT and then that started spiking. It was spiking like every second program until there wasn't any other program to spike.

Click to expand...

Give it a try.

It sounds more like an I/O problem, cache or something else. Include your sys specs in your info, it'll help.

Could be some thing you have plugged into the usb port(s)? If this just started what has changed? There was some thing you added or took out.

Click to expand...

That's the thing I don't understand though.. I haven't installed or done anything that would change anything from what I do daily. Nothing installed, didn't uninstall anything recently, it just started happening randomly yesterday afternoon.

Edit: Turned off PC, renewed the thermal paste on my CPU, reset the CMOS, and dusted my PC out. Still having cpu spikes.

disconnect from the internet with the machine. Try a few programs. Maybe there is a deeper bad thingy that is hidden. Try a few "different" tools since some baddies can disable the scan softwares to report things being clean.

disconnect from the internet with the machine. Try a few programs. Maybe there is a deeper bad thingy that is hidden. Try a few "different" tools since some baddies can disable the scan softwares to report things being clean.

Click to expand...

Well it seems to be selective, I've tried several games (which is when it occurs). It happens when I play RIFT and Guild Wars 2, and occasionally Runescape.

I've tried Borderlands 2, The Secret World, The Witcher 2 and Everquest II. It didn't happen in those games.

try playing with the affinity settings with the cores... try isolating each core at a time and see if it makes a difference. could be a bad core. or could just be a core running hot (it throttles down to save it from burning up, so the usage spikes), poor heat sink contact with the cpu or they f'd up the lid of the cpu somehow. could just be old or poor quality thermal paste too or unevenly applied pressure of the cooler.

try playing with the affinity settings with the cores... try isolating each core at a time and see if it makes a difference. could be a bad core. or could just be a core running hot (it throttles down to save it from burning up, so the usage spikes), poor heat sink contact with the cpu or they f'd up the lid of the cpu somehow. could just be old or poor quality thermal paste too or unevenly applied pressure of the cooler.